Rage for OrderVocals/Keys: Geoff Tate
Guitars/Vocals; Chris DeGarmo
Guitars/Vocals: Michael Wilton
Bass/Vocals: Eddie Jackson
Drums: Scott Rockenfield
Additional keyboards by Neil Kernon
I think it is safe to say that
Rage for Order is where Queensr˙che got its most “progressive,” at least in the sense of how the word is defined today. Incorporating a number of time changes, keyboard work, use of samples, and experimental guitar work,
Rage for Order ended up influencing bands of note in both the progressive and gothic subgenres of hard rock and metal.
Writing for
Rage for Order commenced in 1985, shortly after the tour for
The Warning concluded. In an interview with Neil Kernon about
Rage for Order I conducted a few years ago, he said Queensr˙che knew the sound they wanted for the record from the very start – “cold, hard, and cruel.” While most of the material was written and arranged before Kernon got involved, he said pre-production took a while because the label wanted a record that had some legs for a radio campaign.
That could have created problems, given the band's blossoming progressive tendencies, but Kernon mediated between the band and label. He explained to Queensryche that not everything had to be boiled down to less than four minutes, but they also had to have a few that fit that mold and the label's expectations.
Mission accomplished.
The band bought into the idea, and
Rage for Order ended up with a bunch of shorter cuts, without sacrificing the song in order to make it happen. Aggressive tracks such as “Walk in the Shadows,” “The Whisper,” and “Surgical Strike” clock in under four minutes, yet they maintain musical complexities that set them apart from some of the band's earlier work. In addition, some of the more “epic” songs on
Rage for Order, such as “Neue Regel” and “London” are only slightly longer than the aggressive cuts, but contain a distinctly powerful and magestic vibe that make them feel longer than they really are.
The music on
Rage for Order is rightly lauded by fans as complex and dark, with those progressive and gothic leanings shinging through. But it's the lyrical theme that really set the stage for Queensr˙che's ascension with
Operation: Mindcrime a few years later. According to Tate, while not a concept album, Rage for Order has a three-tiered lyrical theme running through the songs: Personal, Political, and Technological. The album title is also a contradiction itself: Rage and Order.
For the sake of brevity, I won't go through each song and highlight how each contains pieces of the theme. But if you sit down with the lyrics, listen to the record, and pay attention to things, you'll easily spot all the references.
Of note, however, is “Screaming in Digital,” Kernon's favorite track on the record, and a song that is a conversation between an artificial intelligence (son) and the human (father) who created it. The song encapsulates what
Rage for Order is all about, lyrically, and is consider by many to be sequel (some make an argument for prequel) to “NM 156” on The Warning. Queensr˙che also played the tracks back-to-back over the years, cementing that theory.
“Screaming in Digital” straddles all three themes on
Rage for Order, and creates arguably the record's strongest statement, despite it being one of Rage's shortest cuts (3:39). According to Kernon, apparently when the band came up with the initial idea for it, it was even shorter, about 2:30. Kernon said he immediately heard the potential in the track and encouraged the band to flesh it out a bit so they could use it. The demo Queensr˙che recorded for it is actually the same length as the album version, a little less polished, and significantly creepier.
Queensr˙che, at the behest of EMI Records, also included a cover song on the record – Canadian songwriter Lisa Dal Bello's “Gonna Get Close to You.” According to Kernon, the band narrowed the choices to that tune, and Dal Bello's “Wait for an Answer,” and went with the former due to its darker vibe. Heart went on to record the latter a year or so later. “Gonna Get Close to You” ended up being one of the singles from Rage for Order, and the only video the band shot for the album.
The band also recorded “Scarborough Fair” from Simon & Garfunkel during this time period. The tune wouldn't appear on the album, but was resurrected as a b-side in 1990, appearing on the CD single for “Empire” in 1990. “Prophecy,” which was tagged onto later releases of the
EP, was also recorded during the
Rage for Order sessions.
There were a few leftover songs that were demoed by Queensryche for
Rage for Order that have never seen a public release: The title track, “The Dream” and “From the Darkside.” The title track featured a very pre-Queensryche-like Geoff Tate vocal delivery. Geoff showed his penchant for rap/spoken type of vocal here. The tune was scrapped, but pretty much everything except the verses and chorus were resurrected as an instrumental (“Anarchy-X”) on Queensr˙che's next album,
Operation: Mindcrime.
“The Dream” was only partially fleshed out, clocking in at just over 2:30. It has a big chorus, and probably could have been turned into a decent full tune on
Rage for Order. It absolutely sounds like a song that could fit comfortably next to “The Whisper” or “Chemical Youth.”
“From the Darkside,” however, sounds like a fully completed tune, and has a length of just over five minutes. It has a bit of a MYTH (Tate's band prior to Queensr˙che) feel to it, and as a result, it is certainly one of the quirkier cuts Queensr˙che has ever done. The verses are more spoken-word from Tate, but it works in the context of the song, and the album's three-layered theme. The verses contain a pretty basic riff with an acoustic guitar underneath. The chorus is the title of the song, with “ohhhhh oh ohhhhh” repeated afterward, with no real instrumentation. The solo, however, really captures the dark mood of the song.
In my opinion, it is unfortunate that “From the Darkside” was never properly recorded. While it was certainly different from the rest of the songs on the record, and given the amount of mid-tempo and ballads on
Rage for Order, it made sense not to move forward on this one, it really could have added to the depth of the album.
In regard to how the record was recorded, the drums for
Rage for Order were captured in an office park in Bellevue, Wash., using a mobile recording truck (Le Mobile) from Montreal. Kernon had used the technique and the truck previously with Dokken and other bands. The idea was to get a “big, bashy” sound from the drums. Vocals and the other instruments were recorded in Vancouver, Canada, and Glendale, California.
Fun fact – Neil and the band recorded a ton of their own samples for the album, including squealing tires in a parking lot and some interesting vocals from Wilton. Check it out here –
https://anybodylistening.net/3.html.
Release-wise, the cover art has always been an interesting conversation among fans. There are a few different versions. The original featured a “blue” ring on the cover with the words “Rage for Order.” Subsequent releases have seen the color change, from a marble black, to a flat black. The original blue one made it more difficult to see what was written, which was the reason for the change. The original “blue ring” vinyl is somewhat rare. But the most rare is the blue ring CD version of the record.
Check out the cover art here:
https://anybodylistening.net/ragefororder.html (examples of vinyl and cassette)
In 2003, EMI remastered the Queensr˙che catalog, including
Rage for Order. I don't recommend it to audiophiles, because it was redlined (as were all the 2003 reissues and subsequent repackages), but the Rage remaster does help boost up some of the effects so that they are audible. Kernon noted to me that the initial pressing of the record was “quiet” and “bass-lite,” which the remaster addressed. It contains four bonus tracks: live versions of “Walk in the Shadows” and “The Killing Words,” an acoustic remix of “I Dream in Infrared,” and the 12” single version of “Gonna Get Close to You.”
From a live perspective, Queensr˙che opened for AC/DC, Bon Jovi and Ozzy Osbourne during the
Rage for Order tour. The tour lasted from July 31, 1986 until late February 1987, concluding with a string of East Coast headline dates on Long Island, N.Y. The band also did a short headline tour in October 1986 of the southwest and west coast of the United States before their slate of opening gigs for Bon Jovi in November 1986. In what may be a surprise to some, Chris DeGarmo booked most of these headline gigs for QR, as the band was in-between management at the time. Tate's old (and future) bandmate, Randy “Random Damage” Gane also performed keyboards with the band for parts of the tour, playing off-stage.
In addition, because, well, it's always been “a thing,” yes, Queensr˙che adopted a bit of an 80s glam image for he album, and some of the support gigs. If I recall correctly, the band just didn't feel right trying to adopt an image that didn't suit them, and quickly ditched it. (Good call. Ha ha ha.)
Unfortunately for Queensr˙che, and despite its influence on many artists, Rage for Order wasn't very successful from EMI's standpoint (it didn't receive much airplay anywhere). While it continued the very slow burn of upward album sales (remember, this was the 1980s, so it was the sales that really meant something, as opposed to first week debut numbers), Queensryche struggled to find a mainstream audience and really become a substantial headline act. That would change in the next few years, however...
Samsara's top-3 from
Rage for Order: “Screaming in Digital,” “Neue Regel,” “Walk in the Shadows.”
Next up...
Operation: Mindcrime...